15,000 captive macaques. One naive 22-year-old vet tech. A summer you couldn’t make up if you tried.
Nobody warns you what to do when a full grown monkey with two-inch fangs decides to charge.
In 1995, Jeff Pennington took a job as a veterinary technician at a sprawling primate breeding facility. Within weeks he was alone in a corral running for his life.
And that was a normal Tuesday.
There was also a pre-dawn boat ride to the island home of thousands of free-ranging monkeys. An exotic animal house call to a Frank Lloyd Wright estate and more true stories populated with primates and people stranger than you can imagine.
Monkey Farm is full of hilarity, heartbreak and inspiration. Both a comedy of errors and the story of a homesick kid trying to figure out what he's made of.
Part This Is Going to Hurt, part All Creatures Great and Small, this is a story about choices that shape us before we understand ourselves.
Monkey Farm will fascinate and resonate with anyone who has ever wondered “what do I want to be when I grow up?”